Diana Grace

The DeKalb Post Office supervisor had a crisis.

A customer used a debit card to purchase a $2,300 money order but left unaware that the clerk had failed to complete the transaction and was now on the hook for $2,300 from her own pocket. The only clue: The customer was an NIU law student.

Enter Diana Grace, secretary in the law school’s Office of Budget and Records and a 20-year NIU employee who is considered the “go to” person when problems occur.

With little information, Grace contacted several offices on the trail of the student who she later found in a classroom.

“I am not nominating Diana for this award based on her duties,” said Robert Snow, assistant to the dean, “but the manner in which she fulfills her responsibilities.”

To many, Grace is the “human face” of the College of Law.

She handles the registration of the college’s more than 300 students, the maintenance and tracking of their enrollment status, the processing of employment and payment authorizations, and other documents unique to the college, such as state bar certifications.

Grace is active in her church’s choir and prayer chain. She also is steeped in fairness: her administration of the lottery for seats in a popular skills training class, and her maintenance of the subsequent waiting lists, yields no criticism from busy law students.